Friday, December 13, 2013

I could do with a little less of the wintery weather, but I have to admit that it sure is pretty. And we only lost electricity for a few seconds from this particular ice storm - that was a nice change.

I finally got around to working on the Hibiscus seed pods and the little beetles were hatching out like crazy. They don't go far and since they're sitting on top of the goldfish aquarium in the basement those goldfish have been having a feast lately!

From my first year bloom on the Hibiscus 'Blue River II' X grandiflorus hybrid, I counted 40 pods from pollen of 'Moy Grande' and 28 pods from intentional self-pollination. That means there were at least 68 flowers on this plant. I think there were only 2 or 3 that dropped without setting pods, so it was probably about 70 flowers. Pretty impressive for a maiden bloom.
Here are some of the hairy seed pods in the process of being shelled out...